In addition to blockading border crossings, Polish farmers have dumped grain bound for Germany, while one tractor carried a placard proclaiming support for Putin and his invasion. “Putin, bring order to Ukraine and Brussels — and to our own rulers,” the message proclaimed in red and black capital letters daubed on cardboard.
“We are now witnessing an excessive and unfair politicization that threatens to dump common achievements — like the Ukrainian grain that the whole world saw flagrantly dumped from trucks and railroad cars on Polish roads,” said Zelenskyy. “This is the grain that our farmers and peasants grow with great difficulty, despite all the hardships caused by Russia’s brutal aggression.”
The Polish foreign ministry expressed its “utmost concern” at the anti-Ukrainian slogans that have appeared at the farmers’ protests — and blamed Russian collaborators for fueling the tensions.
“Activities of this kind cast shadow over Poland, which was the first country to help the invaded Ukraine, and over Poles, who welcomed Ukrainian refugees. Importantly, they are a disgrace to the protests’ organisers themselves,” the ministry said in a statement.
Poland’s consul in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where Polish is widely spoken, condemned the actions of the farmers.
“I can no longer remain silent. For the love of my own Motherland. I cannot pretend that I do not see these disgraceful actions of Poland on the Polish-Ukrainian border. I apologize to you dear Ukrainian friends,” the consul, Eliza Dzwonkiewicz, said on her Facebook page.
